Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Making Peace with the Titans Draft

It's been 2 days since the draft ended and I think I'm beginning to calm down. I'm not going to lie, Reinfeldt and Fisher ruined my weekend.

I still can't agree with taking a RB in the first round. If Chris Johnson isn't Marshall Faulk or Brian Westbrook this was a mistake. I think that if they really wanted Johnson, they should have tried to trade down a few slots. It seems like not only did they over-react to the mini-run on RB's (Jones and Mendenhall went the picks previous to the Titans), but they reached for a player who has eerily similar measurables to Chris Henry who the Titans reached for as a 2nd-rounder last year, who they have apparently conceded is a bust.

And Jeff Fisher's comment that they almost selected WR Devin Harris, but then "moved on" to other positions when all the top flight WRs were off the board at their second pick is just galling. Didn't they see the run happening? They couldn't figure out a way to move up 2 slots for Limas Sweed? They certainly figured out how to move up 21 slots to draft a DE from Winston-Salem State who nobody ever heard of.

The only saving grace was that they got Lavelle Hawkins from Cal in the 4th. Very productive receiver opposite DeSean Jackson and he should help a lot. Mel Kiper thinks this was one of the value picks of the draft, so I'm feeling a little better.

But all in all, I just don't see that the Titans got better this weekend while many other teams did. The playoffs seem much further away.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had no ideal you were such a draftnik.

If it makes you feel any better, Chris Johnson is supposed to be an off the charts combine freak. Don't know if he can play a lick but a all world athlete.

Glenn Gruber said...

Jim, I know he's a combine freak, but so was Mike Mamula and as Philly fans know, that didn't turn out so well.

But even if he's a good player, they still have significant needs at WR that went mostly un-addressed (with all due respect to Lavelle Hawkins; good #2 or #3 WR, but doesn't help stretch the field). I'm more pissed at the fact that they did not move up a few slots to get Kelly or Sweed in the second round. That's the much bigger, more unforgivable mistake in my book.